As a result of reading of photographers concerns with search engine optimization for their websites - and their realizing the need to have relevant text in their webpage source code so that the page has content that can be used for search engine and search directory indexing - and the renewed efforts at Sitemaps - and a false confidence that a Splash page will be all that's necessary to get their website recognized by popular search engines . . .

. . . tonight I have just spent the last couple of hours coding a simple webpage that just may OPEN YOUR EYES as to what textual content is really on your webpage. I designed the application to extract the common Page Title, Meta Description, and Meta Keywords which are phrases that most are aware of . . .

. . . but what we don't often know about our webpage, is what it looks like if all of the html, php, and other tags are stripped out of the Page Source code that we see when we click on "View Source" in our web browser. In actual fact it is this stripped down webpage text that search engines extract and use for indexing your website in their directories.

GIVE IT A TRY _ IT IS EDUCATIONAL _ and may just help you to take a different approach to how your webpage is put together so that you can benefit from lots of appropriate keywords and keyphrases.

Please keep in mind, that I threw this script together quickly. It is accurate and thorough, but I have not built in complex algorithms that would extract ALT content in the IMG tags. Different search engines may allow more text than I have with my algorithm, or they may not allow all that I have allowed. What I have done is simply strip out every tag leaving behind the text in between. I was actually shocked at how little usable text was available on some of the webpages that I tested the script on while building it.

Remember to try different webpages on your website also as they should reflect the theme of that page and have good supporting content. The deeper the site, the more search engine indexing. Just enter the complete address to the separate pages - not just the Home page.

Also - it is the PAGE TITLE and BODY CONTENT that matter and should be rich with text content. Few search engines are using the Meta Keywords and Description for indexing webpages.

. . . got up this morning and decided to research the maximum length that the TITLE, DESCRIPTION and KEYWORDS should be and after finding that information, thought it would appropriate to do the calculations on the extracted webpage data and include a "Character Count" beside each of the categories for all of our benefit. I have also included the recommended maximum values - although it is always good to do your own research on what is considered optimal.

QUOTE "I was wondering what the 'maximums' imply - anything negative about going above them or is it just no more value in doing so?"

There are a lot of variables depending on the search engines. My personal main focus is currently with Google and secondarily with Yahoo visibility.

With page Title tags the recommended maximum is 64 characters according to most resources - - - however there is no need to be this restrictive as Yahoo allows up to 120 characters. All that happens if you go beyond 120 is that Yahoo chops them off, so they are useless and can just make a mess for people bookmarking your webpage. What is interesting about Google is that while their maximum is 66 characters, they only chop off at the end of a word - - - so if you have a long last title word that exceeds the 66 character limit, only up to the previous word will be indexed and show. So a recommendation is to think of the Title as 2 pieces with the most important words within the first 66 characters to benfit from both Google and Yahoo, and then add on the extra characters up to 120 to benefit from what Yahoo looks for.

As far as META Description goes - - - while everyone states that the Description and Keywords are currently not being used by serach engines and so don't hold much weight, Google's Official Webmaster CEntral Blog suggests that "meta descriptions might be displayed in Google search results -- if the description is high enough quality. A little extra work on your meta descriptions can go a long way towards showing a relevant snippet in search results. ". All recommendations are to keep your Page Description concise and specific to the page content.

META Keywords have the been the main target of Spammers in the past and so they appear to be largly ignored. Some web designers include large blocks of search engine keywords and keyphrases in the hope of getting their website noticed. I have heard that this practice can be harmfull to your search engine placement. One source suggests that "over 300 keywords may not do any good. This number will help you in optimizing your web page without being penalized by the search engines. We generally use only 3 to 12 keywords or keyword phrases in our Meta Keyword Tags and always stay well below the recommended Meta Keyword maximum characters."

While a cool tool, I don't see much use for it. Meta keywords and meta description have very little effect on search engine ranking due to years of abuse by unscrupulous webmasters - according to some they have zero effect. What matters most is actual copy on your site. And please don't even dream of using background-colored text to "hide" keywords, as that will lead to swift and severe punishment in rankings.

I got my site indexed by google within a week of submitting it, with zero inbound and outbound links (at the time).

Most of the advice sold by SEO advocates is pure snake oil. Please note I'm not implying that the top poster is one of them.

The following is the by far the best SEO guide I've read, and I've read many:

Actually it is a cool and valuable tool. As I mentioned from the onset, it's not too hard to find out what your Title, Description and Keywords are when designing a website - as the designer if the part of the process of figuring out what to enter in those areas of the webpage code.

What is very difficult to find out is what your amalgamated webpage code without the tags present looks like. Web pages can look like they are loaded with useful content - when in fact much if not most of what is there, is content that search engines will strip out and so has no value other than to structure the webpage for display. This webpage that I provided shows immediately what usable text is available and can make anyone aware of changes that should be made - - - it allows visual awareness that is not possible by simply looking at the webpage Source Code with it endless Markup. Actually, I initially designed it last nght without the separated Title and Meta tags and Character count. My first script was simply a read of the remote website page, extraction of the source code, and stripping out all tags which included all of the Meta stuff. On further refining it, I just thought it would be fun to extract those parts also and display them separately for those who want to see it all - - - they are still considered a part of the webpage design process.

BTW - all may not be what it appears when it comes to at least the "description" tag:

I obviously agree about the usefullness of depending on Meta tags for good search engine placement at this time (as I have posted above) - but they are there to use and it certainly doesn't hurt fromatting them in a useful manner. This interesting webpage I have created, does nothing more than what it was designed to do - - - strip out the tags so the balance of the text on the page can be displayed. Obviously there is a lot of research that can be done on optimizing our webpages. There are no straightforward or guaranteed answers as to what works and what doesn't. Any who are wanting to learn all they can about SEO, have one of the greatest tools available with all of the web documentation that can be extracted for our use, with a simple WEB SEARCH.

QUOTE "the best search engine optimizer is Eyeball 1.0 along with Common Sense 1.0."

That certainly helps.

QUOTE "Besides, the time taken to do SEO is most likely better utilized in creating original content."

For everyone it will be different. I have no options but to research it and keep on top the best I can, keep records of what works and doesn't work for my website, and to constantly adjust when I see search engines like Google change their algorithms on a regular basis to level the playing field for everyone. I make 100% of my living from my website and without a constant feed of viewers and clients coming to my websites, I STARVE and would not be able to make the generous living that I do from my photography. Being as visible as possible on the web, is vital for my success and probably far more important than taking pictures - and it has been an endless effort on my part for the 7 years that I have opertated my business this way - - - and it has provided me with far greater success than I was ever able to have when I had my beautiful Main Street Studio during the 1990's (when the web wasn't really an option for finding clients).

Well I've made the webpage even better and more useful. It now strips out the content between hidden tags like <script>, and so is more accurate in showing the actual text that a search engine will see and be able to index. Also fixed a bug with websites that could not be extracted as a result of having this line of code <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>. As far as I know, all normal websites should now work and display the contents.

Besides, the time taken to do SEO is most likely better utilized in creating original content.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=154441\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

You need both. Great content does you no good if it is not seen, and without a minimum of SEO, I don't see how this would happen unless you engage in other self-promotional activities that are even more time-consuming. Being merely indexed by Google is not useful if you don't appear near the top of search results.